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Monday, November 07, 2005

More gas conserving tips

Non-essential travel will be ended, idling of vehicles will be limited as much as possible and air conditioning will not be used. Carpooling will become essential.

Utilize your local bus systems to get around.

mowing grass less frequently

street sweeping could be cancelled for a few days to conserve fuel

work schedules also are being adjusted so employees can carpool, drive at off-peak hours to avoid traffic congestion or telecommute.

employees should be encouraged to walk or bike to work.

officers would patrol their beats on bicycle or on foot. Some calls would be handled over the phone, she said.

Police in Fayetteville also will be walking and biking more, Pitts said. When not answering a call, they will park their cruisers in crime-prone areas to be close enough to patrol on foot, he said.

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison has obtained fuel cards for his deputies so they can fill their tanks closer to their patrol areas.

"I didn't want them driving all the way from Zebulon and Wendell or the Apex-New Hill area to downtown Raleigh to fill up," said Harrison, who also has made the fleet of patrol cars more fuel-efficient in recent years. "I took the SUVs off patrol and gave them to K-9 units, school resource officers and crime prevention units that aren't patrolling every day."

The sheriff also has ordered deputies to patrol smarter to conserve gas.

"We're having deputies sit in middle of their patrol zones and do paperwork and try to cut their cars off," he said.

Deputy Kenneth Bagwell, who covers both Wendell and Zebulon, has taken the order to heart.

"I can sort of judge where the majority of my calls are going to come from and lean that way more than the other," Bagwell said. "We are very conscientious because of so much traveling on the job."


Friday, November 04, 2005

Our Gushing Oil Wells

By KATHRYN ROSS - Wellsville Daily Reporter
LITTLE GENESEE - With a pop and a gush, nearly 75 people watched oil history repeat itself in Allegany County Tuesday.

Back in the late '40s, old timers recalled it used to take place three or four times a day, but the last time an oil well was “shot” in Allegany County was over three years ago, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation officials who were on the scene Tuesday when Chris Kellner shot a well belonging to Ron Smith.

The well, a new well drilled over last winter and spring, is located on county Route 5 about 2.5 miles from the post office in Little Genesee.

“Shooting a well” is oil country terminology for dropping nitroglycerin into a well to fracture the surrounding rock for the purpose of increasing oil production by opening up pockets and fissures containing oil. In the old days, the life expectancy of a shooter was counted in days, because transporting the highly explosive nitroglycerin over rutted terrain was very often a fatal experience. John Herrick in “Empire Oil,” printed in 1949, relates that the remains of unlucky shooters were collected in cigar boxes, and buried in full-size coffins.

The procedure wasn't much different on Tuesday than that carried out by men named Garthwaite and VanCuren during the oil boom in the county as Kellner used an aluminum emulsion, primer cord, detonators and highly explosive dynamite to shoot Smith's well.

Kellner, who apprenticed under the retiring Glenn Benson, is trained and certified in the use of explosives. He is taking over ownership of Kellner Well Services, of Olean, which specialized in oil field explosives.

In a procedure very similar to loading a black powder rifle, Kellner packed six bags of aluminum-based explosive emulsion each weighing 30-pounds and two-feet long, into six, two-foot long sections of tin pipe. He lined the tin shells with primer cord and attached highly explosive dynamite and detonators to each end and wrapped them with tape. They were lowered into the hole, that had been drilled to 1,123 feet, after it was filled with sand and gravel to bring it up to a depth of 1,050 feet, the level the DEC approved for the explosion.

When the “shells' snagged in the hole, and had to be fished free, Kellner decided not to wrap the last five bags in tin. Instead, looking like a string of sausages they were lowered into the hole. The hole was created not by drilling with a rotary bit, but instead by slowly pounding the rock with an outfit called a spudder.

A total of 25 feet of explosives were place in the well. Smith hoped the shot well would increase production to four barrels a day. (A barrel of oil contains 42 to 45 gallons of oil.)

In the old days an iron ball called a “go devil” was dropped into the well to hit a firing pin and detonate the nitroglycerin, and the shooter would ‘go like the devil' for cover. Kellner's go devil was more like a terrorist's pipe bomb. Calling it a drop pack, he took a three feet long length of pipe and crimped one end. In the other end Benson, with the help of Bill Dibble, packed dynamite, attached detonators and fuse, stuffed in some wadding and constructed a bail from which to hang it.

Kellner, Smith and Benson then lit up cigarettes and strolled over to the circa 1947 Cyrus Erie “Spudder” rig with the go/pack in hand. They puffed furiously sending small clouds of blue smoke into the air as they walked. Then after lighting the fuse, with the hot end of their smokes, like in old western movies, they dropped the go/pack into the hole, and strolled back to the crowd.

The spectators had been told to retreat to the tree line of the tiny clearing.

As the men reached the tree line an audible pop was heard from the well, and a tiny vibration was felt through the soles of workboots and hiking shoes as a chain reaction explosion took place more than 1,000 feet under ground.

Then, the air above the mouth of the well shimmered with the release of gas which was followed by a jet of Richburg crude reaching twice the height of the 42 foot tall rig as it hurtled into the gray sky. Twisted tin, rocks, water and oil spewed over the muddy ground before the tide receded.

After the explosion Kellner said he was pleased with the efficiency of the light load. Earlier he exclaimed at the number of people who stood for five hours in the drenching rain waiting for the event.

“I've never had this many people at something like this or answered so many questions,” he said.

Smith, who has 24 wells that produce about 11 barrels a day, said he was pleased with the outcome and plans to have another well shot in the spring.

As for Tuesday's event, Smith said, shooting the well was historic, because it was done the old way.

“Today they use a method called hydrofraccing to increase production. This is the way it used to be done. It's the way it was done when I was a kid,” Smith said.

Smith is a third generation oil man, and cut his teeth in the oil business holding the dynamite for his father Richard and grandfather Gordon.

He believes that with the high cost of oil there will be renewed interest in drilling for oil in the Allegany County fields. Currently his oil, which is part of the Richburg Field, is shipped to Bradford, Pa., for refining.

DEC official Chris Miller said the number of permits for drilling in the six county area he covers has increased over the last couple of months to more than 30 a month.


Thursday, November 03, 2005

Wells not dry yet, experts contend

By DANIEL LEBLANC, The Times Herald
10/21/2005

CUBA — More oil wells are being drilled locally and outside companies are taking more interest in the Twin Tier’s supply of gas and oil, local oil producers said at Thursday’s New York State Oil Producers Association Inc. meeting.

The group met at Moonwinks Restaurant for its 87th annual meeting and discussed the state of some of the local oil and gas fields.

Association President Paul Plants told members that “it’s hard to find a time when the price of fuel has been so volatile.”

He added that there is also concern over the possible rise in natural gas costs this winter.


“Sixty percent of the Gulf Coast’s gas wells have been shut down” due to recent hurricanes, he said. “This is good for local producers, but difficult for the elderly who are on fixed incomes.”


With an ever-increasing demand for natural gas, Mr. Plants said New York stands poised to potentially pick up some of the slack in the industry.


“We have 100 years (supply) or better of natural gas in New York,” he said. “New York could make a difference in the natural gas supply.”


With this large supply, the problem is tapping the natural gas wells and piping it to other areas of the country, he said.


“We don’t have the infrastructure to bring it to the market,” he said.


After the meeting, he said that a new pipeline would likely have to be laid in some areas, which is difficult to get approval for due to environmental regulations.


Also, with the renewed interest in oil products due to rising crude oil prices, he said there has been increased interest in the Twin Tier’s oil reserves.


“Things are beginning to pick up,” he said.
Most of the interest has been in the Bradford, Pa., area, but New York’s Southern Tier has seen some increased activity as well, he said.


The Department of Environmental Conservation has received nearly double the number of well permits than from a year ago, Mr. Plants said. That number could double again in 2006.


“There are a lot of heavy hitters from outside the area” looking to drill wells of 10,000 feet, he said. Most of the smaller local operations only drill as deep as 2,000 feet.


Smaller producers are getting more out of these shallower wells because of new technologies and techniques, he said.


The 156-member Association has also seen its first increase in members in several years, he said.


John Miller, a geologist with Beldon & Blake Corp., which has many oil fields around Bradford, Pa., said that his company is continuing to expand its number of oil wells in the world’s first billion dollar oil field.


Between 1871 and 1936 an estimated 352.7 million barrels of oil were produced from the oil wells surrounding Bradford, he said.


“This is an extremely exciting area. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity there,” Mr. Miller said.


The Company’s main focus has been on wells in Westline, which is south of Bradford. The company has been drilling wells as close as 450 feet apart.


A lot of the oil being produced comes from old wells from the 1800’s and 1900’s that were not completely used up, he said.


Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Gone in flames - Spontaneous Human Combustion

One of the strangest tales is the story of the ghastly death of
Dr. John Irving Bentley of Coudersport, Pa., by spontaneous
human combustion. On the morning of Dec. 5, 1966, Don. E.
Gosnell, a meter reader for the North Penn Gas Company, began
his usual rounds in the small town of Coudersport.

His first stop was at the home of a 92-year-old, retired
physician Dr. John Irving Bentley. Dr. Bentley was a
semi-invalid but able to get around in his home with the aid
of a walker. Gosnell opened the doctor's door and yelled that
he was there to read the meter, but received no answer. He went
down to the basement to read the meter and immediately
encountered a light blue smoke and an unusual odor.

In a corner of the basement floor, Gosnell discovered a mound
of fine ash about 5 inches high and 15 inches wide. With his
foot he kicked and scattered the pile of ash, thinking nothing
further of it. Unknown to him, above his head was a hole 2
feet wide and 4 feet long burned right through the floorboards.

Gosnell read the meter and next went upstairs to check in on
the doctor. Upstairs the blue smoke was thicker and, becoming
alarmed, he called for the doctor but still received no answer.
When Gosnell stuck his head into the bathroom, however, he saw
a ghastly sight which haunted him for the rest of his life.

The doctor's walker was tilted over the large hole burned into
the floor. Alongside the walker was all that remained of the
doctor -- his right leg from the knee down. The leg was browned
but not burned, and the shoe was still intact.

In horror Gosnell ran from the house yelling, "Doctor Bentley
burned up."

Coroner John Dec was summoned to investigate the suspicious
death. One theory proposed was that Bentley had set his robe on
fire while striking a match to light his pipe. When the robe
ignited he used the walker to reach the bathroom for water to
douse on the flames. This theory, however, was quickly discounted
when the doctor's robe -- singed but not burned -- was found in
the nearby bathtub. Even if the robe had caught fire, how would
the fire have been hot enough to consume most of the body?

Another question that arose was that if the fire had started
in the living room, why was there no trace of it? Others asked
how a fire could have been so hot as to almost completely
incinerate a body, but have almost no effect on other objects
in the house.

Coroner Dec's certificate of death gave the cause of death as
"asphyxiation and 90 percent burning" but the questions
surrounding the event remained unanswered. The incident is today
regarded as one of the most unusual occurrences of spontaneous
human combustion.

This story always amazed me to read about what happened
to this Dr. What an awful way to go!!


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